New Years
by Brookebynature
Summary: They'd lived in the same city for five years and barely spoken. She loves Christmas Eve, and he maintains that New Years is always better. Now a charity New Years Eve party offers Brooke the perfect chance to tell Lucas how she feels.


**Author- **brookebynature

**Disclaimer- **I own nothing other than this story.

**A/N- **I wrote this in response to a challenge on the writers 911 board, so really, that's the reason for me posting it on here. I guess all you need to know is that it's set in the future, and the rest will be explained to you.

Just a quick question which might sound totally stupid, but I was watching a show the other day and they were talking about 'on-trays' (I think that's how you would spell it) What is one of those?

Anyway, on with the story. All I ask is that you review at the end :)

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** New Year's**

Brooke slipped herself into the red silk dress that God knows she'd spent a fortune on. Her hair was curled lightly, and the layers made it fall perfectly around her face, her brown eyes dark and smoky, enticing, completing the sultry glamour look she was aiming for.

New Year's had never been a big deal back home, not really. Sure she'd spent it with her best friends, toasting in the new year with a glass of champagne at Tric before getting completely wasted an hour later. Her kisses had been with different guys each year: Junior Year with Lucas, sophomore year with Felix (wanting it to be Lucas) and senior year with Michael Torrini-captain of the lacrosse team (glad that it was anyone other then Lucas.)

Either way, Brooke had spent every New Years with, or thinking about Lucas. This year was no different.

She had major modelling contracts, earning her celebrity status along with too much money and the life she'd wanted since she was a little girl. Lucas played for the New York Knicks, also earning him celebrity status, too much money and a life he was a little, if not very unsure about.

Brooke knew he'd been invited, and as the party was being thrown by a designer friend of hers, she was able to find out information like the table he was sitting at, (hers upon her own request) the guest he was bringing, (nobody-besides, there wasn't room for a guest at their table) and the room number he was staying in. (236-she'd had the concierge do his homework)

Perhaps it was a little too over board, stalker-ish even, but Brooke had to see him again. Five years of living in the same city, dining in the same restaurants, hitting the same party circuit, and she'd bumped into him twice. The first time he was with his girlfriend, the second, she was with hers.

Rachel was the one thing (person really) that Brooke had kept the same in her life. And with Rachel's love of modelling, (that Maxim shoot had only brought her more offers of work) partying and the fact that they lived in the same apartment building, they spent days off together, concerning themselves with manicures, facials and shopping on Fifth Avenue.

"You look hot." Rachel commented from her position on the floor, legs raised as she completed her stomach crunches. "Almost as hot as I will when I'm dressed."

Brooke rolled her eyes, deciding not to ask the common question 'Why are you in my apartment and not your own?'

"You think people think we're lesbians?" Rachel asked, letting out a breath as she focused now on stretching.

"Why would they think that?"

"Because of that picture on the front of the newspapers last month."

"In our defence, we were drunk." Brooke giggled, recalling the night her and Rachel were on a mission to find the best cocktail in Manhattan.

Rachel shrugged and smiled. "I guess we'd make a pretty hot couple though."

"Are you coming onto me?" Brooke raised an eyebrow, unable to keep from laughing as Rachel nodded seductively, biting her lip.

"We should try it one time, you know, if we're desperate for attention from guys."

"Newsflash Gettina, I don't get desperate."

"Someone loves herself."

Brooke stared in disbelief as Rachel (probably the most in-love-with-herself person ever) exited the apartment with a small nod and a wave.

-

"I gotta hand it to you, you probably do look hotter than me tonight." Rachel conceded as they made their way to the entrance hall of the hotel, complete with balloons and flowers, and of course, a red carpet. "But I guess you need it since you plan on kissing Lucas."

"I do not plan on kissing Lucas!"

"Nice try," she smirked. "but you could never lie well."

Still seeing green spots in front of them, caused by the flashes from the paparazzi outside, Brooke and Rachel entered the reception, greeted by waiters with trays of champagne, hors-d' oeuvres and red wine. They took a glass each, Brooke out of politeness, Rachel out of thirst.

"There's just something I like about free champagne." Rachel said. "It always tastes better."

"That's because it's free." Brooke muttered, scanning the room for…well…for Lucas.

"Christ Brooke!" Rachel hissed. "We only just got here and you're looking for him?"

"We only just got here and you've downed a glass of champagne."

The red-head looked down at her empty glass and gave Brooke a small shrug accompanied by a wry smile. "Oops."

-

An hour had passed, and still Brooke hadn't spotted Lucas. People had now begun to make their way to their designated tables, some happy with their seating arrangements, some notably unhappy. Brooke couldn't decide whether or not she was glad that Rachel was on her table. Either she'd make sly comments every now and again, ruining the moment as she had oh-so-carefully perfected during high school, or she would be moral support, offering 'a get-out clause' if things started to go drastically wrong.

"Ladies and gentleman," The host began, turning as the door squeaked open, and both Lucas and a team mate hastily made their way to the two empty seats.

"Ladies and gentleman," he repeated, smiling a little as he recognised the late arrival. "Thank your very much for taking the time out of your no doubt hectic schedules to attend this dinner in aid of charity…"

The audience burst into a spontaneous round of applause at the mention of the word 'charity' and Brooke took the opportunity to smile at Lucas as he took his seat beside her, straightening the black tie he felt so uncomfortable wearing.

The speech ended and there was general chatting among the tables as waiters made their way over, offering a choice of red or white wine to the guests.

"Um…hi" Lucas began, highly embarrassed at his late entry, not to mention his flustered state as Brooke gave him a small wink.

"How are you?" She asked, ignoring Rachel's smirking which was clearly visible in the corner of her eye.

"Good." He nodded. "And you?"

"I'm good too."

They both nodded, but laughed a little as silence fell upon them and the rest of the table were participating in other conversations, all too self-absorbed to care about Brooke and Lucas' history, and the potential of what could happen later on that night.

"Not like a high school reunion huh?" She smiled, showing those dimples he'd almost forgotten.

"I never thought we'd see each other again and it would be like this, _we'd_ be like this."

"Like what?" Brooke asked, clasping her hands as she leant a little further towards him, simply because the volume of noise had risen dramatically.

"Famous."

"Someone has a high opinion of themselves." She smirked, laughing as Lucas raised an eyebrow. His hair was blonder now, she'd noticed, and longer, more like it was when she first met him all of those years ago.

"Yeah my ego just keeps getting bigger and bigger."

He wasn't as serious now, and Brooke liked that. Not that she hadn't like his seriousness-someone had had to compensate for her lack of it. But he seemed happier, more confident.

-

"I'm glad it's not awkward between us." Brooke said, spreading a little of the paté on her salad.

"Well that would have been the cue." Lucas chuckled as he did the same, only putting much more of the paté and salad in his mouth.

That spark was still there, even Rachel had taken time out of her conversation with some guy who worked in advertising (they were talking about her photo shoots nonetheless.) to watch the pair of them. She wouldn't let on to Brooke that whenever she laughed or got just a little excited, Lucas would smile, watching her every movement.

"What _is_ this stuff?" Lucas asked, toying with the lettuce until Brooke placed a hand on his arm, laughing while trying to stop him playing with his food. Had she wanted to make things between them a little awkward, she would have focused on the tingling in her own arm. But Brooke continued laughing, not daring to look at Rachel for fear of Lucas catching some sort of eyebrow raise that would no doubt happen.

"It's called salad. Rocket actually."

"Hmm." Lucas nodded, pretending to know what she was talking about before they both irrupted into a fit of laughter, many people on the table shooting them glances for the disruption.

"You've learned nothing about haute cuisine I see." She joked, placing her knife and fork together before taking a sip of the red wine.

"Haute cuisine? Give me my Mom's spicy tomato pasta any day."

"Please tell me she doesn't still make you that." Brooke rolled her eyes, again moving a little closer so as not to draw more attention to herself by shouting.

"Yup." He nodded. "Every time I visit."

"Lucas, it's made with cartoon character-shaped pasta!"

"So?"

"You're 24!"

"It still tastes just as good." He defended, taking a sip of his wine-white. They still had their differences.

-

The dancing had begun, much to Brooke's excitement and Lucas' dismay. He much preferred to talk rather than move awkwardly on the dance floor, 'out-danced' by the many men who could move their hips a lot better than most. Brooke called them good dancers. Lucas called them gay.

"Please broody." She hadn't used that name in too long, and it definitely stirred up something inside of him, because she'd pulled him into the middle of the dance floor within seconds.

It was elegant, professional, and Lucas wasn't sure whether he preferred this style of dancing, or the hip hop beats he used to be forced to dance to back when he and Brooke were together in high school.

"I don't really like this kind of dancing." Brooke whispered in Lucas' ear, letting her lips linger there for probably too long. Usually, Lucas would have taken that opportunity to suggest a trip to the bar, or at least, to rest back at their table. But having her that close to him when he hadn't been able to hold her like that in five years, he wasn't about to suggest they stop.

"You were the one who wanted to dance." He chuckled a little, letting one of his hands slide from her hip to the small of Brooke's back. It was almost too much for her as she felt those shivers and her legs nearly gave way beneath her.

If this is what he could do to her after five years apart, then Brooke wasn't about to let him out of her sight.

-

"Emergency rendezvous!" Rachel murmured into Brooke's ear, just as she was about to rest her head on Lucas' shoulder. Normally, she would have been pissed at her friend, but noting the look on her face, and her use of French, Brooke excused herself, following Rachel to the bathroom.

"What the Hell?"

"Okay, so big problem."

"Which is?"

"Brandon is here, as in here!"

"Who the hell is…oh my God."

"I know!" Rachel's eyes widened as she blew a strand of hair out of her face.

"Well has he seen you?" Brooke asked.

"Probably, I mean…I'm hard to miss in a killer dress like…"

Brooke shook her before she could finish. "Try being a little less in love with yourself for longer than a minute."

"I'm not…"

Brooke raised an eyebrow and Rachel promptly stopped talking, giving Brooke a helpless smile.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Well you could start by not having casual sex with guys just because they're hot."

"Like you're one to talk."

"Don't even compare me to you!" Brooke exclaimed. "Besides, I'm not the one with the problem here."

"Yeah, cos you're getting all cosy with Lucas the big NBA star." Rachel mocked, making kissing noises that wouldn't have been inappropriate in a first grade classroom. It just so happened that they were in the marbled bathroom of a top Manhattan hotel, so the noises were anything but appropriate.

"At least I'm not calling a emergency rendezvous in the bathroom!"

"Fine you win. So what do I do?"

"Nothing." Brooke decided. "Don't avoid him, but don't go up and talk to him either. If you guys make eye contact, just smile politely and keep walking."

"Okay." Rachel let out a breath, adjusting the straps of her dress to reveal slightly more cleavage. Brooke rolled her eyes and joined Rachel next to the mirror, primping her own hair and reapplying a coat of lip gloss.

"But whatever you do, do _not _make arrangements to meet up, even if he does do that really nice talking-in-Spanish thing."

"It's hard to resist!"

Brooke shot Rachel a look in the mirror, and they both raised an eyebrow at the same time, causing them to laugh and have to re-touch their hair.

"Be good!" Rachel shouted as Brooke left the bathroom. "And if you can't be good, use a condom!"

-

"Everything okay?" Lucas asked as Brooke joined him back at their table, the clock ticking ever-closer to midnight. She smiled at his question, answering a brief 'yes' before realising that the music tempo had changed, and the hip hop had begun to play. Well…okay, it wasn't exactly hip hop, but it beat whatever had been playing previously.

"Dancing?"

"Love to."

Brooke still found it in herself to grind to this music, even though nobody else was. But she figured that when Rachel finally emerged from the bathroom, she would join them on the dance floor, picking up the numbers so that more people felt compelled to join.

"We used to dance like this in high school." Lucas spoke roughly into Brooke's ear, feeling the heat of his own breath against her skin.

Turning to face him, she let an arm drape casually over his shoulder-a sign that within an hour, things would be anything but casual. "You saying that's bad?"

He shook his head, a smile forming at their contact. "Not at all."

-

Sure enough, within only a half hour, Brooke found herself dancing harder up against Lucas, untucking his shirt as she shook her hips across his waist, her own silk dress rubbing softly against her skin. Every time Lucas felt Brooke let out a shaky, uneven breath against his neck, it was all he could do not to grab her and kiss her there and then, ignoring the niggling thoughts about what stories would be splashed across the various papers and magazines the following days.

The screen above the stage was turned on fifteen minutes from countdown time, and the music stopped playing in order for everyone to assemble on the dance floor, most people finding partners to spend those last fifteen minutes of New Year's Eve with. Scanning the room, Brooke saw that Rachel was with non other than Brandon, but she found it hard to care too much, especially with Lucas' hand resting on the small of her back.

"You can't beat New Year's, right?" Lucas asked, passing Brooke a glass of champagne handed out by the waiters.

"I don't know." She shrugged, smirking, her heat beating much faster. Perhaps it was the effects of the dancing, or maybe from the champagne, or it could have been from Lucas' fingers moving around the silk in circular movements, causing Brooke to bite her lip so as not to make any inappropriate noises. "I kinda like Christmas Eve better."

It got to a minute before midnight, and Brooke moved so that she was facing Lucas, her body pressed up against his as they both fought the urge to kiss each other right then.

"Ten"

_Will we ever see each other after this?_

"Eight"

_What if this is all just a New Year's thing?_

"Six"

_If I told him I was still in love with him, would he run?_

"Five, four, three, two…"

"Happy New Year." Lucas whispered as he let his lips crash against hers, her free hand tangling in his hair almost instantly. She was on her tip toes, even in heels. He had to bend down slightly so that they were able to meet, and as confetti fell from the net above them, Brooke pulled back, opening her eyes.

"You were right." She smiled, giving in to temptation and kissing him again.

"What's that?" He asked, leaving his hand to rest on her back, tracing small circles as she smiled, watching his blue eyes scan her own.

"You can't beat New Year's."

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THE END 


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